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Ottawa’s bill for extra legal services has soared over seven years

OTTAWA—Spending on extra legal services has increased fourfold under the Conservatives in Ottawa, ballooning from $106.7 million in 2006 to more than $462 million last year, a Star analysis shows.

The drastic spike in outside legal support outstrips increases in every other category of contracted work for the federal government. A Star report revealed Tuesday that spending on contracted professional services has increased 27.8 per cent between 2006, when the Conservatives took power, and the past fiscal year.

Spending on legal services jumped sharply in 2007, fluctuating between a low of $362.9 million to as much as $500.8 million a year. Over the seven-year period examined by the Star, federal departments and agencies spent a total of $2.7 billion on legal services contracted from private law firms and other departments.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay’s director of communications, Paloma Aguilar, noted that the federal government is involved in approximately 50,000 litigation files.

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“The increase in costs is based on a number of cases — including on behalf of residential school survivors and defending our legislation against impaired driving,” Aguilar wrote.

The department also noted it changed its accounting practices in 2007-08.

But former Department of Justice lawyer David Daubney, who served as the Progressive Conservative MP for Ottawa West under Brian Mulroney, suspects other factors may explain the increase in external lawyers.

Daubney, who left the department in October 2011, said the Conservatives are more likely to consult external firms on questions of criminal justice policy than previous governments.

“That has been the sea change, I would say,” Daubney said in a recent interview.

“They do what they wanted to do, in terms of criminal justice as sort of a key (political) plank. Certainly the advice from the department, for example, was that mandatory minimum penalties did not work from the point of view of deterrence and were extremely expensive and so on. But they essentially ignored that.”

“After a few months, they didn’t bother asking the department,” Daubney added.

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Daubney suggested another factor in the hike in outside legal costs could be an increase in the number of court cases the federal government is involved in.

“The government is very litigious, and so much of that I guess is being done by outside counsel,” Daubney said.

Federal spending on professional services has steadily increased under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s tenure, from $7.8 billion in 2006 when the Conservatives took power to more than $10 billion a year over the past four years. The federal government has spent $67.4 billion on professional services — from management consultants to IT specialists — over the seven year period.

Treasury Board officials said the contracts are required to fill specialized gaps in the public service, or to adapt to unexpected work loads.

Responding to the opposition NDP’s questioning in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Clement implied contracting out kept money in the federal coffers.

Asked if he had any specific evidence to support that, Clement told reporters Wednesday: “I think that the general standard is that departments have to justify contracts, external contracts if the expertise is not available, let’s say within the public service or if it’s a term-limited appointment.”

“So those are general rules, and we expect every deputy minister to adhere to those rules in the allocation of resources within the departments,” he added.

The Conservatives have taken a hard line against public sector unions as of late, pledging to trim the core public service by 19,200 positions over the next two years. The move is expected to save $5.2 billion.

Unions also warn the most recent budget implementation bill will alter the balance of power with the federal government, giving the government exclusive powers to designate essential services.

Clement’s department has also contracted out several studies looking to establish salary, performance and benefits comparisons between the private and public sector. Clement has signalled that union sick leave benefits will be targeted in the next round of collective bargaining in 2014.

The head of cabinet’s Treasury Board also dismissed concerns about the public’s access to information when public sector work is contracted to private firms.

“Lookit, I think that anything that happens within government has to be adhered to in terms of what the rules that are in place (for access to information),” Clement said.

“I think that by any statistical analysis we are meeting the demand (for information), and the demand to continues to grow.”

Cost of doing business

$462 million

Amount Ottawa spent on outside legal services last year, up from $106.7 million in 2006

$2.7 billion

Amount spent by federal departments and agencies on outside legal services over seven years

50,000

Approximate number of court cases involving the federal government, according to Justice Minister Peter MacKay’s office

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